OMB Leadership

Shaun Donovan, Director

Shaun Donovan was sworn in as the 40th Director of the Office of Management and Budget on July 28, 2014. Donovan has committed his life to public service focused on good government and smart investment, while also building his leadership skills in the private, non-profit, and academic sectors.

Prior to OMB, Donovan served as the 15th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he managed the Department’s $47 billion budget — helping families buy homes, aiding households in fighting off foreclosure, revitalizing distressed communities and combating homelessness. While at HUD, Donovan made critical investments to speed economic growth, while also offering new savings proposals and ensuring fiscal responsibility.

Prior to his service in the Obama Administration, Donovan served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) where he created and implemented HPD's New Housing Marketplace Plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable homes, the largest municipal affordable housing plan in the nation's history.

Before his service as HPD Commissioner, Secretary Donovan worked in the private sector on financing affordable housing, and was a visiting scholar at New York University, where he researched and wrote about the preservation of federally-assisted housing. He was also a consultant to the Millennial Housing Commission on strategies for increasing the production of multifamily housing. The Commission was created by the United States Congress to recommend ways to expand housing opportunities across the nation.

He also served as acting FHA Commissioner during the Clinton/Bush presidential transition. Prior to his first service at HUD, he worked at the Community Preservation Corporation (CPC) in New York City, a non-profit lender and developer of affordable housing. He also worked at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University and as an architect.

Donovan holds a B.A. and Master's degrees in Public Administration and Architecture from Harvard.

Brian Deese, Deputy Director

Brian Deese is the Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Prior to OMB, Mr. Deese served as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. In this role, Mr. Deese was charged with coordinating policy development on several Administration economic priorities including tax policy, financial regulation, housing, clean energy, manufacturing, and the automotive industry. Before he joined the Administration, in January of 2009, Mr. Deese worked as a member of the Economic Policy Working Group for the Obama-Biden transition team and was the Deputy Economic Policy Director to the Obama Campaign, where he helped craft the 2008 economic campaign platform. Prior to this Mr. Deese served as Economic Policy Director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Previously, Mr. Deese spent three years at the Center for American Progress where he worked as a Senior Policy Analyst for Economic Policy. His work centered on fiscal policy, international trade, and globalization. Mr. Deese has also worked at the Center for Global Development where he co-wrote the book, Delivering on Debt Relief. In addition, his writing has appeared in numerous publications including the Washington Monthly, International Herald Tribune, and the Atlantic Economic Journal. Mr. Deese is a graduate of the Yale Law School, where he received J.D., and Middlebury College.

Beth Cobert, Deputy Director for Management

Beth Cobert is the Deputy Director for Management. She was confirmed on October 16, 2013. Cobert previously served nearly thirty years at McKinsey & Company as a Director and Senior Partner. During her tenure, she worked with corporate, not-for-profit and government entities on key strategic, operational and organizational issues across a range of sectors, including financial services, health care, legal services, real estate, telecommunications, and philanthropies. She led major projects to generate performance improvements through process streamlining, enhanced customer service, improved deployment of technology, more effective marketing programs and strengthened organizational effectiveness. Within McKinsey, Cobert held multiple leadership roles in people management including recruiting, training, development and performance management of staff. She has been a champion for professional development and initiatives to support women's advancement to leadership positions. Cobert also previously served as a board member and chair of the United Way of the Bay Area and as a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council. Cobert received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University and a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford University. She and her husband Adam Cioth have two children.